Louis Lee's Rock Garden

“it all started with just a few small rocks”

Louis Lee's Rock Garden is also known as the Lee Oriental Rock Garden. In 1958, Louis Lee bought this house in Phoenix, AZ and started building with small rocks. He added to his creation with rocks, bottles, statuary, and other objects until he passed away in 2006. The entire front yard is filled with the artwork. While the Garden is not open to the public, you can view quite a lot of it from the street. The family says they will maintain the garden in tribute.

This is the type or roadside oddity that is best visited when one can meet its creator. The people who build such things are often as, or more, interesting than their art. Sadly, Lee is no longer with us. Given that Lee has passed and that this is a private home, we only stopped briefly to look at what we could see from the street. The sculptures provoke me to want to know more about Lee, and question whether this sort of thing helps or harms property values. :)

I'm glad we stopped, but am glad we didn't have to go very far out of the way to see it.